morality - A Tippling Philosopher (Page 3)

A Tippling Philosopher

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morality

A collection of 176 posts

Dietmut Teijgeman-Hansen - Flickr - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/

"Morally Benign" Children and Human Sacrifice

Well, extra points for trying to shoehorn in weird blog titles, I guess. So, yesterday I talked about how children are often more "idealistic" and "morally benign". I will admit that the use of the term "morally benign" was at best nuanced and unexplained,

The Ring of Gyges and Deterrence

The Ring of Gyges is an ancient Greek thought experiment. In simple terms: The Ring of Gyges... is a mythicalmagical artifact mentioned by the philosopher Plato in Book 2 of his Republic (2:359a–2:360d).[1] It grants its owner the power to become invisible at will. Through the

Psychology and Moral Philosophy: An Integration

Last night, I gave a talk to the Portsmouth Skeptics in the Pub with fellow ATP writer, Alan Duval. We had a great time and I can't thank Pompey Skeptics enough (especially as they donated all proceeds to my appeal - totally brilliant of them). It was great

Morality: Goal Theory vs Desirism

Here are two atheists, Richard Carrier and Mike McKay, debating morality some time back. I am showing this because I think I will be doing a post or two on desirism at some point, a la Alonso Fyfe. I do have fairly similar views to Carrier's on morality

Red Dead II: Psychology and Morality

For Christmas, my partner bought me a PS4 game, the hotly anticipated Red Dead II: Redemption. I am not really a gamer - I mean, I could be, if I had much more time at my disposal - I have it in me to be one. These days, I use

Come to Portsmouth to See Me and Alan Duval Give a Talk on Morality

It's the dream team, there's no doubt about it. Pearce and Duval, Portsmouth Skeptics in the Pub, 10th January, morality. What more could you want for the new year? We are going to lay out our ideas about what the main theories of morality are, spending

Determinism, Naturalism, God and Meaning

I recently posted a piece about knowledge and meaning and is regular Christian commenter posted this, with my original words in italics: I would far rather take the time and effort to analyse and evaluate life and existence to create my own meaning rather than have to receive someone else’

Meaning and Morality without God? A Psychiatrist Answers.

This is the age-old accusation against atheists that come from village and philosophical theists alike. Ome retort to this has come from psychiatrist Ralph Lewis, featured in the Skeptic Magazine. It's a great summary piece. Here are some selected paragraphs: As a psychiatrist working with people facing many

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Politics as Moral Philosophy

Generally, the study of morality is split into three components: descriptive morality, meta-ethics and normative morality. Normally philosophers replace the term ‘morality’ with ‘ethics’. Descriptive ethics is concerned with what people empirically believe, morally speaking. Normative ethics (which can be called prescriptive ethics) investigates questions of what people should believe.

consequentialism

Theistic Morality and Improving the World

One of the real powers of humanist morality, or consequentialist morality in general, is that it looks to improve the world we live in. When we look at utilitarianism, then the idea of the greatest pleasure for the greatest number of people (or lack of pain) is tangibly about improving

conceptual nominalism

Human Rights Don't Exist until We Construct and Codify Them

Human rights don't exist. By this, I mean, as I so often state, they do not have ontic existence - they do not exist outside of our minds. Like all abstract ideas, for a conceptual nominalist like myself, the existence of such mental entities (labels, morality and so

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My Atheistic Moral Philosophy; Objective, Subjective and Theistic Morality

As promised, here, finally, is a hopefully succinct synopsis (ha, er, impossible) of my moral philosophy. In setting it out, I will also counter positions adopted and claimed by theistic thinkers and apologists (am I implying apologists aren't thinkers?). Let's set out the basics. What is

Dietmut Teijgeman-Hansen - Flickr - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/

Summary of My Moral Positions (and Atheism)

I will soon be writing more about the ontology and exact positions of my moral philosophy. In the meantime, here is a synopsis and set of links for some of my moral writing: * Atheists and Morality: Defining Our Terms * Atheists and Morality: On Christian Theories of Ethics * Atheists and Morality:

classical theism

My MS Diagnosis, God and the Problem of Evil

As many of you know, I've recently been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. As is my wont, I would like to see how this works within the light of some theology and philosophy of religion, especially in the context of the problem of evil. The problem of evil it

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Democratic Party

Republicans (Moral Conservatives) More Likely to Cheat on Spouses than Democrats

Republicans have traditionally been more inclined to espouse tight moral conservatism, especially within the sexual domain. Of course, with three-time married pussy-grabber and alleged marital rapist Trump as their idolised number one, anything goes. Because they can't be seen to criticise Trump, they find it hard to deal

consequentialism

The Christian God Is a Consequentialist

As this has come up in conversation again, it is worth posting this essay for the perusal of my newer readership. Enjoy. Here is an essay that I wrote some time ago, raising points that William Lane Craig has failed to deal with. This one comes up an awful lot

William Lane Craig Takes on Traeger here at ATP

Jeremiah Traeger wrote a piece some time back about evolution and morality entitled: "Evolution Is A Descriptive Model, Not A Prescriptive One". The crux of what Traeger is getting at is as follows: Within a creationist worldview, our conscience, our culture, our family, our upbringing, and our moral

Dietmut Teijgeman-Hansen - Flickr - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/

Quote of the Day: Phil Rimmer on Morality

I love this comment by Phil Rimmer, from this thread, especially the final sentence: This (Jonathan's take) comes closer to my view. I think the "mental supervenes on the physical" mis-identifies the mental. The mental is the brain states that compose it and is physical too.

By Inside_my_head.jpg: Andrew Mason from London, UK derivative work: -- Jtneill - Talk (Inside_my_head.jpg) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

My Views on "Objective" Morality

Jeremiah Traeger, here at ATP, recently posted on objective morality and referenced my beliefs in this context, especially regarding conceptual nominalism. I will look to succinctly set out my beliefs here again to stimulate some discussion. What is a conceptual nominalist? Let me elucidate: Abstract Objects Abstract objects are incredibly

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Morality, Equality of Opportunity and Inevitable Homogeneity

I was down the pub last night for an impromptu chat with some mates. We started off talking feminism, moved onto equality of opportunity and then through to morality. We covered all sorts of topics in between. That's how cool we are. One of our conclusions was pretty

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Christians, Their Morality and Their Ironic Intolerance

God is love. Or something. Turns out, very often, Christians don't reflect this ideal. This is kind of understandable given the distinct lack of such an ideal in the Old Testament. But if we park that whole tranche of biblical history for the time being, let's

freeimages.com / Laszlo Honti

You Cannot Derive Morality from the Bible Alone

A short one tonight, and one that will be no new great idea for you, but I was thinking about this whilst mowing the lawn and listening to some early Reasonable Doubts podcasts. Essentially, there is little moral clarity in the Bible, and even when it gives seemingly clear instructions,

moral psychology

"Real Life" Trolley Experiment - This Is a Must Watch

This is a fascinating video and I only wish they carried this out on more subjects. Well worth looking at for a sense of what real people would go through when experiencing the dilemma of the famous moral philosophy thought experiment with real psychological dimensions. [H/T Mark Landes] https:

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Atheists and Morality: Moral Oughts

Religionists so often bang out the claim that atheists have no basis for a moral ought. Take this comment, from another thread (Atheists and Morality: On Christian Theories of Ethics): Moral obligation ( ought ) and moral prohibition ( ought not ) make absolutely no sense in an essentially and ultimately meaningless existence. All

Divine Command Theory

Atheists and Morality: On Christian Theories of Ethics

I was recently railing against naive claims that some theists mistakenly throw about. Let me give you some more of the chapter I wrote for John Loftus' book Christianity Is Not Great, a continuation of that last post: On Christian Theories of Ethics I will endeavor to run briefly